There was a crush of voters at all three local early voting sites in Hamilton County on Thursday - the last day to cast early ballots before the Nov. 4 presidential election. The final early voting total in Hamilton County was 67,515.
And, as early voting ended, Election Administrator Bud Knowles said he was placing a police officer to guard election equipment until election day on Tuesday.
An election office official said, "Due to the intensity of the upcoming presidential election, Mr. Knowles has decided to place a police officer on site at the Election Commission to safeguard the equipment and ballots until election day.
"With all the hype that surrounds this closely contested Presidential race, we feel this move to have security over our building these next few days was the right move. We want to make sure there is no room for any question about the safety and security of our ballots and voting machines.
"Starting today at 4 p.m. until the office re-opens on Monday morning, we will have a police officer on site.
"Also, on election day an officer will be stationed at the Election Commission office."
The early vote total includes:
Nursing home 706
Absentee 3,457
Brainerd Recreation Center 18,449
Election Commission 23,285
Northgate Mall 21,618
"I've been voting for 50 years and I've never seen anything like this," said veteran political observer Paul Smith.
He said, "At Brainerd, they are around the building and in the parking lot. There's a two-hour wait. It's the same way at Northgate Mall and at the election office."
Charlotte Mullis-Morgan, assistant election administrator, said by 5:30 p.m. that 4,000 had already voted on Thursday.
She said at 8 p.m. staff members will go to the end of the lines and tell those who arrive afterwards, they will need to vote next Tuesday.
There had already been more than 61,000 early votes cast here at the end of Wednesday.
Mr. Smith said he expects close to 100,000 to vote in Hamilton County on Tuesday.
The county has 205,000 registered voters.
Mr. Smith said, "I think people are frightened. The economy has awakened a sleeping giant.
"We are fighting a two-phase war and peoples' 401Ks are losing value. That is generating a lot of fright."